Nothing is so beautiful as Spring –
When weeds, in wheels, shoot long and lovely and lush;
Thrush’s eggs look little low heavens, and thrush
Through the echoing timber does so rinse and wring
The ear, it strikes like lightnings to hear him sing;
The glassy peartree leaves and blooms, they brush
The descending blue; that blue is all in a rush
With richness; the racing lambs too have fair their fling.What is all this juice and all this joy?
A strain of the earth’s sweet being in the beginning
In Eden garden. – Have, get, before it cloy,
Before it cloud, Christ, lord, and sour with sinning,
Innocent mind and Mayday in girl and boy,
Most, O maid’s child, thy choice and worthy the winning.~Fr. Gerard Manley Hopkins (b. 1844- d. 1889) (source)
Yes, there have been reports from family and friends that signs of spring have been spotted in various parts of the United States. Yesterday, KBF took this lovely picture of a daffodil picked by an elfish hand from her outdoor garden in Virginia. The picture of the daffodil with Our Lady of Lourdes, and a backdrop of blue skies, and views of a child’s playground, might remind us of what Hopkins described in his delightful poem, Spring, as that first Eden’s garden, which the maid’s child has restored.
While I sit in a northern heated home, surrounded by barren trees, and the remaining throes of a yet-dying winter, this picture from the South offers hope: spring will arrive; and I am certain there will be nothing as beautiful as it.
So, even though it is an Ember Friday in Lent, and we still walk among the Lenten ashes, and rightly so; I do declare, it will not be long before we are asking, like Hopkins: what is all this juice and all this joy?
May you have a good day, and weekend.
~SCF
~Analysis of Spring by Fr. Gerard Manley Hopkins, here.
